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Policy Exchange report highlights security threat and accuses Dublin of freeloading' on European defenceBritain faces a backdoor" threat to its security from a Russian, Chinese and Iranian presence in the Republic of Ireland, according to a report by an influential thinktank that accuses Dublin of freeloading" when it comes to European defence.The UK should also expand its air and naval presence in Northern Ireland, to counter a growing Russian threat on the UK's western flank, according to the Policy Exchange report, which is backed by two former defence secretaries, Michael Fallon and George Robertson. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian Australia investigation lifts the veil on shocking life expectancy gap and the system failures fuelling deathsHundreds of Australians experiencing homelessness are dying more than 30 years prematurely in a nationwide crisis fuelled by despair, critical housing shortages, a breakdown in health provision, violence on the streets and failures of the justice system.A 12-month Guardian Australia investigation identifying and examining more than 600 cases has found people experiencing homelessness are dying at an average age of 44, a shocking life expectancy gap that experts say is worse than any other disadvantaged group in the country. Continue reading...

Remote and Indigenous communities disproportionately energy insecure, with inequities to become more apparent due to climate change, study co-author says

Liam Hatch's appearance in Albert Square as Logan met with comments such as Dad's gone back to class'It is a frequent observation at the school gates, the bowling alley or the local branch of Nando's: the students are starting to look older than the teachers nowadays.And EastEnders fans thought the same this week after seeing Albert Square's newest school bully, Logan - played by the actor Liam Hatch, 27.Stockard Channing was 33 when she played the 17-year-old Rizzo in Grease.Judd Nelson was 25 when he played 16-year-old John Bender in The Breakfast Club.Stacey Dash played 16-year-old Dionne Marie Davenport in Clueless when she was 28.Barbra Streisand was 40 when she played a 28-year-old woman trying to pass as a 17-year-old boy in Yentl.Alan Ruck played high-schooler Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller's Day Off! aged 29.Rachel McAdams was 25 when she played 17 year-old Regina George in Mean Girls.Ben McKenzie was 25 when he played 16-year-old Ryan in the OC. Continue reading...

Kitty Harrison clung to tiny ledge above 300ft drop for more than three hours before helicopter rescueA woman has told of how she had to be rescued by a helicopter and 12-strong mountain rescue team when she slipped while scattering her father's ashes on one of Wales' highest mountains.Kitty Harrison had just given her father, Steve Parry, an emotional send-off on the summit of Tryfan in Snowdonia when she lost her footing. The 32-year-old trainee dental nurse had to cling to a tiny ledge where she balanced precariously above a 300ft (91m) drop for more than three hours. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Low-traffic neighbourhood applications were rejected due to lack of ambition, not policy shiftGovernment claims that it blocked councils from installing low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) appear to have been a fiction, the Guardian has learned, in another apparent sign that Rishi Sunak's plan for drivers" is thus far mainly performative.After the revelation last month that the prime minister's decision to prioritise driving over walking and cycling was prompted in part by 15-minute city" conspiracy theories, documents show that a claim about the wider policy shift was invented. Continue reading...

Facilities at St Pancras too inadequate' to process new checks without hour-long queues' at peak times, says operator HS1Eurostar could be forced to limit passenger numbers travelling from St Pancras each day under post-Brexit plans to bring in biometric border controls later this year, the owner of the station has warned.HS1, the owner and operator of the line and stations between London and the Channel tunnel, has raised concerns that planning for new Entry/Exit System (EES) checks at the London rail station are severely inadequate", and would lead to long delays and potential capping of services and passenger numbers. Continue reading...

Crypto Open Patent Alliance wants court in London to declare that Craig Wright is not Satoshi NakamotoAn Australian computer scientist's claim to be the mythical figure behind bitcoin will be challenged in the UK on Monday, in a high court case backed by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta and the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.Craig Wright has asserted for years that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous author of the 2008 white paper behind the world's cornerstone cryptocurrency, but has failed to prove it. Continue reading...

Insiders say pressure from the top results in credulous reporting of Israeli claims and silencing of Palestinian perspectivesCNN is facing a backlash from its own staff over editorial policies they say have led to a regurgitation of Israeli propaganda and the censoring of Palestinians perspectives in the network's coverage of the war in Gaza.Journalists in CNN newsrooms in the US and overseas say broadcasts have been skewed by management edicts and a story-approval process that has resulted in highly partial coverage of the Hamas massacre on 7 October and Israel's retaliatory attack on Gaza. Continue reading...

Admirers of the avant-garde composer's work hope the concert in the German church will stay the course - all the way to 2640When Halberstadt's St Burchardi church opens its doors for a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience on Monday, some of the spectators streaming into the 11th-century building will have booked their tickets years in advance and crossed continents to get there. But don't expect them to demand an encore.Because if one thing is certain about this concert, it's that it won't be over for a long, long time yet. Continue reading...

Lawyers and human rights campaigners say case shows Home Office's increasingly hostile environment policy for EU citizensA Portuguese plumber who has lived legally in the UK for more than 20 years has been threatened with deportation by the Home Office after struggling with his application to remain here.According to lawyers and human rights campaigners the case of Joao Rocha Goncalves Da Silva, 45, is evidence of the Home Office's increasingly hostile environment policy regarding EU citizens. Continue reading...

Fighting resilience undermined by hollowing out' of armed forces since 2010, defence committee hearsThe UK's ability to fight an all-out war would be marred by the armed forces' capability, stockpile shortages and a recruitment crisis, MPs have been told.The Commons defence committee heard that the hollowing out" of the armed forces since 2010 had undermined the UK's war fighting resilience, and the army would exhaust its capabilities after the first couple of months" in a peer-on-peer war. Continue reading...

Less well-off residents in the southern city of Antakya feel left out of the city's rebuilding efforts Read more: A year in the aftermath of Turkey's earthquake - a photo essayRows of bright white marble gravestones dot a hillside on the outskirts of Antakya, some bearing the words martyr of the earthquake". The final resting place for the city's dead will soon be overshadowed by tower blocks for those who survived. Bright yellow cranes jut into the skyline on the next hillside, slowly birthing a cluster of concrete skeletons, new government housing for some of the hundreds of thousands who lost their homes when deadly earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northern Syria last February.No one can bring back what was lost, as we lost everything," said sa Akbaba, who lost seven members of his extended family along with his home. Continue reading...

Labour MPs call to extend provision to every primary pupil in England after study finds health and learning improveLabour is facing calls from MPs to back the provision of free school meals for all primary school children in England, after a new study found evidence that it reduces obesity and boosts reading skills.Levels of obesity were reduced by 7% to 11% among reception children in the four London boroughs that have already adopted the policy, according to the study seen by the Observer. For children in year six, who had been given free school meals for their entire time in primary school, there was a 5-8% reduction. Continue reading...

First prime minister after independence from South Africa went on to become third president in 2014 and won re-election in 2019Namibia's president, Hage Geingob, died early on Sunday in a hospital in the capital, Windhoek, the presidential office said in a statement. He was 82.First elected president in 2014, Geingob was Namibia's longest serving prime minister and third president. Namibia is to hold presidential and national assembly elections towards the end of the year. Continue reading...

Advocates lament missed opportunity for reform, saying some safeguards have become barriers

A business department report trumpeting the four-year benefits of leaving the EU does not match the reality faced by companiesOn the four-year anniversary of Brexit last Wednesday, business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch trumpeted its successes. The British people's conviction that the UK would excel as masters of our own fate has paid dividends," she said, launching a report detailing the benefits.Among the top achievements listed were booming sales of honey to Saudi Arabia, surging pet food exports to India, a rush of UK pork, worth 18m over five years, heading into Mexico's restaurants and homes, and UK beauty products sales leaping in China, thanks to barriers being smashed. Continue reading...

Macky Sall cites dispute between national assembly and the constitutional court over rejection of candidates as reason for delaySenegal's president, Macky Sall, has announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election scheduled for 25 February a few hours before official campaigning was due to start, provoking anger from opposition figures and a ministerial resignation.In an address to the nation on Saturday, Sall said he had postponed the vote that would have decided his successor because of a dispute between the national assembly and constitutional court over the rejection of candidates. Continue reading...

A member of the stolen generations, the Yankunytjatjara leader was only reunited with her mother through a chance meeting 30 years later

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Victim, 70, had been shopping with six-year-old before she was stabbed on Saturday night in Redbank Plains, police say

Defence secretary says third joint UK-US assault on Iran-backed group is to protect lives and preserve freedom of navigation'The UK has joined the US for a third time in conducting a wave of airstrikes on Iran-linked Houthi targets in Yemen.The defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the fresh assaults were not an escalation", but instead were designed to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of navigation" in the Red Sea amid Houthi attacks on boats. Continue reading...

Daughter and sister of victims found bodies before detectives arrested 43-year-old man who police say was living across the road in Rosewater

At least 46 people reported dead as dozens of fires sweep across central and southern regions, with Valparaiso worst affectedAt least 46 people have died from forest fires raging in central Chile, President Gabriel Boric has said, warning that the death toll is likely to rise.Earlier on Saturday, Chile's interior minister, Carolina Toha, said there were currently 92 forest fires in the centre and south of the country, where temperatures were unusually high. More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed. Continue reading...

Russian claims that western weapons used in attack on town in Moscow-controlled Luhansk regionRussia's emergencies ministry said workers had retrieved the bodies of 20 people from the rubble following a Ukrainian attack on a building housing a bakery in the city of Lysychansk in the occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

Influential musician also co-produced group's albums and mentored many Jamaican artistsAston Family Man" Barrett, bassist for Bob Marley and the Wailers, has died aged 77.The news was confirmed on Saturday by Olivia Grange, Jamaica's minister for culture, who wrote on X (formerly Twitter): I share with you my deep regret at the passing of Aston Francis Barrett, popularly known as Family Man' or Fams' ... He died at the University of Miami Hospital in Florida in the United States early this morning." Continue reading...

Searches carried out at Abdul Ezedi's Newcastle home and in London as his female victim remains critical but stable'With the hunt for Abdul Ezedi entering its fourth day, police have appealed for the public to come forward with information about the suspected chemical attacker.Investigators released two images of white plastic bottles with warnings about corrosive substances, which may be linked to the attack on a 31-year-old woman and her two daughters last week. Continue reading...

Plans to reform social care and House of Lords are trimmed as Keir Starmer's party opts for caution ahead of voteLabour is planning only limited first-term reforms of social care and the House of Lords and a smaller green investment plan as part of a stripped-down general election manifesto, as it seeks to make its policies bombproof" to Tory attacks.Shadow cabinet ministers have been given until 8 Februaryto make policy submissions for the manifesto, as Keir Starmer's party gears up for an election that, according to opinion polls, looks likely to return it to government for the first time since 2010. Continue reading...

Network says role will be recast after Ukraine hit out over casting of Serbian for new seasonThe makers of hit TV show the White Lotus have dropped actor Milo Bikovi from the upcoming series after criticism from Ukraine over the Serbian native's ties to Russia.Bikovi, who was cast for the third season of the award-winning dark comedy just weeks ago, has protested against HBO's decision as the triumph of absurdity and the defeat of art". Continue reading...

Countdown for republicans to potential Irish unification ticks louder as new first minister pledges to serve everyone equally' at StormontThe chamber's ornate ceiling remained blue, red and gold, and Portland stone still held up the Stormont edifice, but the beaming Sinn Fein faces declared this was a historic moment for Irish nationalism.Michelle O'Neill became Northern Ireland's first nationalist first minister in a day of symbolism and pomp that restored devolved government and etched an epitaph on the tomb of what was once a unionist state. Continue reading...

Officers admit there have been no confirmed sightings of the 35-year-old since the night of the attack on WednesdayThe Met has issued a new appeal to the public as the search for the suspected chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi entered its third day and released video of officers in Newcastle raiding an address in the city.Ezedi, 35, from the Newcastle area, has been on the run since Wednesday's attack and is described as having very significant injuries to the right side of his face". On Saturday evening police said there had been no confirmed sightings of him since 9pm on the night of the attack. Continue reading...

Buckingham Palace is yet to issue an official study of the monarch for Australia as local MPs keep lists of eager constituents who have requested a copy

The number of people held on remand is rising rapidly - and Indigenous Australians are significantly overrepresented

Disclosures show PwC alone made $369,973 in direct political donations last financial year

Improved genetic management is producing a hardier, more productive merino, without having to sacrifice wool quality

Hundreds killed and injured in central Gaza Strip while Palestinians crowd into camps and the city of Rafah

Demonstration first in UK since UN's international court of justice ordered Israel to ensure acts of genocide not committed in Gaza

Chancellor says protests are strong sign in favour of democracy' as demonstrators gather in Berlin, Dresden, Hanover and other citiesAbout 200,000 people have taken to the streets of Germany in further protests against the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).Protests on Saturday also took place in Dresden, Mainz and Hanover in a sign of growing alarm at strong public support for AfD. Continue reading...

Decision rebuffs request by conservative group to alter admissions process for US military academyWest Point, the US's academy for army officers, can still consider race in its admission process for now after the federal supreme court refused to immediately force a change to the school's policies.The supreme court's decision Friday rebuffed a request by a conservative group to alter West Point's admissions process, which takes race - as well as a host of other factors - when selecting students who aspire to be future army officers. Continue reading...

Renell Charles, 16, killed in brutal attack' by 17-year-old who jumped out of taxi while victim was at bus stopA teenager who got out of a taxi and chased and stabbed a schoolboy has been convicted of murder, the Metropolitan police has said.The 17-year-old, who was 16 at the time of the attack on 5 May, was found guilty by a jury at Snaresbrook crown court in London on Friday of murdering Renell Charles. Continue reading...

Scarlett Jenkinson's relatives thank Esther Ghey for incredible selflessness and empathy towards our family'The family of Scarlett Jenkinson, who was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years for the murder of Brianna Ghey, have said they are truly sorry" for the teenage killer's brutal" actions and paid tribute to Brianna's mother.Jenkinson, described by the judge as the driving force" behind the murder, was sentenced on Friday for what the Crown Prosecution Service said was one of the most disturbing cases" its lawyers had ever dealt with. Her accomplice, Eddie Ratcliffe, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Continue reading...

Fiona McArthur's vegan sweets began as an experiment - and now they're food for the Hollywood starsIt's a long way from the windswept waterfront of Campbeltown to Hollywood: but for next month's Oscar nominees a taste of this remote corner of Scotland awaits, after the owner of the town's chocolate shop was chosen to produce the sweet treats for the famed $125,000 award ceremony goodie bags.Fiona McArthur, who started creating her chocolates in her mother's kitchen four-and-a-half years ago, says she's still pinching herself at the coup. It's blowing my mind that my chocolates are going to be eaten by people like Bradley Cooper and Margot Robbie," she says. Continue reading...

Andrzej Duda sparked row after saying he was unsure if Kyiv could regain control of Russian-occupied CrimeaPoland's president has declared he has always been unwavering in his support for Ukraine after being criticised for saying he was unsure whether Kyiv would be able to regain control of Crimea.Warsaw has been one of Kyiv's staunchest supporters since Russia invaded the country in 2022 and has said Ukraine must regain control over all of its territory in order to deter Moscow from further aggression. Continue reading...

The TV personality, who also hosted the BBC show Escape to the Country, said in 2022 his lung cancer had spread to his brainThe TV presenter Jonnie Irwin has died aged 50, his agent has confirmed.Irwin, who presented Channel 4's A Place in the Sun and the BBC's Escape to the Country, revealed in November 2022 that his lung cancer had spread to his brain and it was terminal. Continue reading...

Pakistani former PM says case was created to humiliate' him and Bushra Bibi, who were sentenced to seven years eachA local court in Pakistan has sentenced Imran Khan, the country's former prime minister, and his wife to seven years each in a case related to their marriage, which it declared un-Islamic".Khan and Bushra Bibi were both last week separately handed 14-year sentences in a corruption case, known as Toshakhana, for illegally selling state gifts. Continue reading...

Shameful' backlogs in cases are causing severe mental health problems, says victims commissionerVictims of crime are dying waiting for justice as they face delays of up to six years for their cases to be dealt with in court, the victims' commissioner for England and Wales has said.As a new law to enshrine victims' rights is scrutinised in the House of Lords, Baroness Helen Newlove warned that the wider justice system was on its knees", with shameful" backlogs leaving victims suffering acute mental health problems. Continue reading...

Discrimination and misogyny in classical music are denying women opportunities at festivals, venues and in recordings, research findsA discordant chord over sexism in the classical music world has sounded again. The head of one of the most prestigious competitions is calling for the industry to confront an apparent bias that is holding back female pianists from pursuing concert careers, however brilliant their talent.Fiona Sinclair, chief executive of the Leeds International Piano Competition, told the Observer that female pianists are failing to reach the top of their profession despite an equal number of men and women now training at conservatoires. Continue reading...

Auction lots include illuminated front sign and Burgundy wine expected to sell for up to 12,000It was famous for serving diners the most expensive meal in the world. Now, rare wine, artworks, silverware and porcelain from the Michelin-starred Mayfair restaurant Le Gavroche are to be sold at auction.The contents of the exclusive eatery - which include 12,000 bottles of red wine and the illuminated Le Gavroche" sign - will be sold by Christie's in April, after Michel Roux Jr's decision to close the restaurant. Continue reading...

Attacks on Friday also described as a strategic mistake' by Iran, which insisted no Revolutionary Guards were present in areas hit

Assembly members gather at Stormont to restore power sharing under Sinn Fein first ministerNorthern Ireland's devolved government has reconvened after a two-year boycott, with Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill due to make history by becoming the first nationalist first minister.The former Democratic Unionist party leader, Edwin Poots, has been elected as Speaker by members. Continue reading...